Navy will host Army and Holy Cross this weekend in Annapolis. Giving these contests aheightened importance is the fact that after this weekend, the Mids will play each of their final four league contests on the road.

Oct. 6, 2009

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - After playing Colgate to a scoreless draw in its conference opener, the Navy women's soccer team (9-2-2, 0-0-1 Patriot League) is set to host a pair of key Patriot League contests at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility beginning with the annual Army-Navy Star Game on Friday at 7:00 pm.

The Mids, who are unbeaten at home in their last-seven Patriot League regular season contests (6-0-1), will conclude the weekend with a 1:00 pm showdown against a much-improved Holy Cross Crusaders squad on Sunday.

Live stats for the contest will be available at NavySports.com, while fans will also be able to follow via the official Navy Athletics Twittter page at Twitter.com/NavyAthletics.

Game Promotions:
 High School Night - High school students receive discounted admission ($1) through advanced online purchase.
 Make It A Navy Soccer Weekend - Fans that purchase tickets to Friday's game receive a free ticket for Sunday's game.

For more information on all the promotions, please call 410-293-8787 and for ticket information, call 1-800-US4-NAVY.

As of Late
The Midshipmen played visiting Colgate to a scoreless draw in a battle of the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the Patriot League Preseason Poll. Senior goalkeeper and team captain Beth Reed made three saves as Navy shutout its eighth opponent in 13 matches this season.

Reed, who now has a conference-best six solo shutouts, enters this week ranked among the national leaders in both save percentage (10th, .894) and goals-against average (16th, 0.53).

As a team, Navy ranks 12th nationally in save percentage (.889), 17th in shutout percentage (.615) and 21st in goals-against average (0.59).

Scouting Army
Army enters this weekend with a 5-5-2 overall mark. Like the Mids, the Black Knights played to a scoreless draw in their conference opener, earning a point with a tie Lehigh last Friday.

While the Black Knights are 1-4-1 on the road this season, they did well to earn a point in Bethlehem, Pa., tying a Lehigh squad that is off to an impressive 6-2-3 start.

Army once again has relied on a healthy does of strong defense and goalkeeping. This season, the Black Knights have scored nine goals, while allowing 10 in 12 matches. A year ago, the maxim that "Defense wins championships" held true for Army, as it earned its first NCAA Tournament berth despite scoring just one goal in its final six games.

Senior Elizabeth Betterbed and sophomore Deanna Clegg pace the Black Knights with six (2 g, 2 a) and five (2 g, 1 a) points, respectively. In goal, junior Alex Lostetter is putting together another strong campaign with an 0.87 GAA and four shutouts.

Army is led by first-year head coach Stefanie Golan, who took over the reigns of the women's soccer program at West Point after longtime mentor Gene Ventriglia retired at the conclusion of the 2008 season.

The Army-Navy Series
This will be the 20th meeting between the two teams, with Navy owning a 9-8-2 advantage. However, since 1998, Navy owns a 9-3-2 record against the Black Knights. The Mids are 5-4-0 against Army in Annapolis.

The two sides played to a scoreless draw in last year's Star competition in West Point and then met again in the Patriot League Finals in Annapolis, where the Black Knights grinded out a 1-0 double-overtime win to earn their first-ever NCAA berth.

More on Army-Navy...
Army-Navy is one of the most storied rivalries in all of college and professional athletics. Its roots date back to Nov. 29, 1890, when the two military institutions squared off on the gridiron with Navy taking the inaugural meeting, 24-0.

Friday's soccer match marks the third head-to-head Army-Navy competition of the year. Each institution has earned a win (Navy - Msoccer; Army - Golf).

Navy leads the all-time series among all sporting events against Army, 902-684-39 (.567).

Last year, Navy won the battle of the Star competitions, 14-7-1, as well as the overall head-to-head matchups, 18-12-1.

Over the last 14 years, Navy has dominated the series, winning 64.0 percent (256-143-6) of the events, while earning a Star in 68.5 percent (193-87-6) of the Star battles.

Scouting Holy Cross
Fresh off its 1-0 league-opening victory at Lafayette, the Crusaders enter the week with a 6-4-1 overall mark.

Holy Cross has produced some impressive non-conference results with wins over UMass (2-0) and preseason NEC favorite Central Connecticut State (2-0), and a draw with Big East foe Providence (0-0).

Senior Shelby Stand leads the Crusaders with a team-high six goals (12 pts.) in 10 games this season. The six goals tie her with Navy's Carissa Youker for the Patriot League lead. Sophomore Katherine Donnelly is the team's top table-setter with five assists and seven points. Donnelly's five assists give her a share of the conference lead along with Navy's Anastasia Abid. Both Stand and Donnelly were First-Team All-Patriot League selections a year ago.

Although Navy owns a commanding 12-2-1 edge in the all-time series, however, last year in Worcester the Mids were pushed to the limit by the Crusaders in a 3-2 double-overtime victory. Stand and Donnelly teamed up on both goals for Holy Cross, each finishing with a goal and assist. Their two goals were the only goals Navy allowed in conference play (seven games).

The Navy-Holy Cross Series
Navy has won each of the last eight meetings, outscoring Holy Cross by a 25-4 margin in those contests.

A Winning Tradition
Navy is on the verge of the program's 15th-consecutive season with 10 or more wins. The Midshipmen entered 2009 as one of 10 programs nationally (there are currently 321 DI women's soccer teams) to have won 10 or more games every season since 1998.

Additionally, Navy's four-member Class of 2010 (Grijalva, Moeller, Reed, White) is just one win away from tying a school record for most wins by a senior class in school history. Since this senior class' arrival in 2006, Navy has won 78 percent of its contests and owns a 59-13-10 record (21-2-1 ... 14-5-4 ... 15-4-3 ... 9-2-2). Both last year's heralded senior class and the Class of 2005 finished their careers with 60 victories.

Navy Soccer News & Notes
 Dating back to the start of the 2006 season, Navy has produced 51 shutouts in its last 82 games - meaning an amazing 62.2 percent of its games over the last three-plus seasons have ended with the opposition scoreless. Over that span, only 10 different teams have scored multiple goals against Navy.

Two-time Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year Shelly Moeller and the Mids' backline has helped shutout eight foes this season.

 Navy has owned the league's least-scored upon defense in each of the last three seasons. The Mids, who already have recorded eight shutouts in 2009, have produced at least 11 clean sheets in each season since 2006.

 Navy is unbeaten in its last 14 Patriot League regular-season contests (9-0-5). Since the 2006 season, the Mids are 15-2-5 (.795) in conference play. Navy's last loss in conference play came on Oct. 19, 2006 against Bucknell.

 Ten different Navy players have scored a goal, while 18 of the team's 21 field players have registered a point.

 The NCAA released its first women's soccer RPI report of the year this week, with Navy checking in at No. 124. The Mids are the second highest Patriot League team in the report, behind Lehigh in the 78th spot. Navy has a 1-0-1 record against teams ranked inside the top 40 of the RPI, with a win over No. 26 Miami (Fla.) and draw with an unbeaten Dayton team thank is ranked 38th nationally.

 Navy has won 27-straight games (dating back to 2007) when scoring first.

 Since 2006, Navy owns a 37-5-4 (.848) overall record at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility. The Mids have visiting teams by a 119-21 margin over this 46-match span.

 The Mids have scored 17 first-half goals this season, while allowing only three goals against.

 Navy has played 332 games in the program's 16-plus seasons of women's soccer. of the 332 games, only 11 have ended in a 0-0 draw.

 Freshman Brittany Fruin continues to lead all Patriot League freshmen with 10 points this season. She is one of three double-figure point scorers on the Navy roster with four goals (two game-winners) and two assists.

 Junior Carissa Youker (Potomac, Md.) continues to pace the conference in a number of offensive categories. Youker enters the week leading all Patriot League players in points (16), points per game (1.23), game-winners (4) and is tied for first in goals scored (6).

 Senior defender Shelly Moeller has run her consecutive games-started streak to 82 matches. Her 82 career starts rank as the fourth-most in school history.

 Moeller was named the Patriot League BRINE Defensive Player of the Week for a conference-record 10th time, announced the league office earlier this week. Moeller surpasses Holy Cross' Tiffany DeCoff, who collected nine defensive player of the week certificates from 1998-2000, to take over as the Patriot League's all-time leader in the category.

It is the second time this season she has earned the award.This season, eight different Navy players have combined to earn a conference-high nine Patriot League player-of-the-week certificates.

Patriot League Preseason Favorites
For the third-consecutive season, Navy was picked to win the Patriot League in a preseason vote of the conference's head coaches and sports information directors. Also prior to this season, Mids' senior defender Shelly Moeller was selected as the preseason Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year after being named to both the first-team league all-star and earning her second Defensive Player of the Year nod a year ago in 2008.

At the Helm
Head coach Carin Gabarra, now in her 17th year at the helm of the Midshipmen program, owns a 210-95-27 record (.672) at Navy. She entered 2009 as one of just 27 active coaches with 200-plus wins and enters the weekend with an all-time coaching record of 216-105-27 (.660).

Next Up
Navy takes to the road for a string of four-straight road Patriot League matches, beginning on Saturday afternoon, October 17 at Bucknell.